"I thought it might be nice to get some mystery back into it," says the new Doctor

Peter Capaldi has admitted his version of Doctor Who will be "less user friendly" than the other ones of recent years.

In comments which could also mean the show is less likely to appeal to some new younger viewers, the acclaimed 56-year-old actor suggested he was returning the show to its roots.

He said: "I thought it might be nice to get some mystery back into it. I love Matt Smith and David Tennant but it had become very user friendly, but I always thought when I was growing up the Doctor was a spooky weird character who arrived out of nowhere and would take people out to space on terrifying adventures. I wanted to evoke a bit more of that and fierceness.

"Some people might think ‘oh he’s a little bit distant’ or he is off or hard. He is not user friendly and he doesn’t care whether you like him or not."

Ahead of Saturday night’s opening episode, Capaldi admitted he was still "fine tuning" the character, according to Radio Times.

Speaking to Chris Evans on Radio 2, where he appeared alongside Daniel Radcliffe and Jon Hamm, Capaldi said: "I’m tuning all the time. First of all it is not just me it is the input of everyone around me. You begin to realise what is Doctor Who and what isn’t. It is not an intellectual process, you just see what works and what doesn’t.

"It must be great if you can write it all down and figure it out beforehand, I can’t do that. I just have to suck it and see and throw it out there. With Doctor Who it becomes clear quite quickly what is Doctor Who-ish

In another interview in Australia yesterday, Capaldi paid tribute to his wife Elaine for much of his success.

The pair have been married since 1991 and he said: "She's fabulous and I love her.

"She looks after me and keeps my feet on the ground. I don't always want my feet on the ground but she keeps them there. I think it's important to try and have perspective, you know, about how lucky we are. Elaine certainly helps me with my perspective."

Capaldi struggled in 2005 and spent a year out of work and considered quitting acting and selling the family home.

But reflecting on this he said: "I learned a valuable lesson because there was nothing that I did to change that situation," he says. "I didn't network people, I didn't go out chatting to people or write letters to people. It just changed and there was work around. Maybe I'd changed, I don't know. What I do know is in this profession it's largely out of your control.

"I think it's so great to be on a set with talented people, gifted people. I get impatient with people who don't want to be there, who make it difficult, because most people don't have a life that is as much fun as mine.

"I try to bring joy to it, because I think it would be ungrateful to do otherwise."

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